The player must confront a long and complicated series of bureaucratic hurdles resulting from a recent change of address.

While undertaking the seemingly simple task of retrieving misdirected mail, the player encounters a number of bizarre characters, including an antisocial hacker, a paranoid weapons enthusiast, and a tribe of Zalagasan cannibals.

[3] Game reviewers Hartley and Patricia Lesser complimented Bureaucracy in their "The Role of Computers" column in Dragon #124 (1987), calling it "an outrageous journey through red tape that puts you directly in the middle of a bureaucratic muddle so convoluted that you can't help but laugh.

"[4] Jerry Pournelle named Bureaucracy as his game of the month for October 1987, stating that he and Larry Niven became "engrossed".

[5] Computer Gaming World described it as "a linear adventure with some very tough puzzles in the midst of some incredible madness".